Cut-Flower Harvesting & Post-Harvest Care
Best Practices & Wisdom from the Slow Flower Community
By the Hensley's team, with thanks to the Slow Flowers community
This guide takes its name from the social media tag #grownnotflown. Flower farmers in the UK are generally credited with starting it to set their homegrown flowers apart from imports, and North American growers have picked it up as well.
Whatever the trend, fresh, seasonal, locally grown flowers simply hold up better than stems shipped long distances. So what are the best ways to harvest and handle flowers, herbs and foliage so they keep their quality after they leave the field and the workroom?
The Hensley's team surveyed five specialty cut-flower growers from the Slow Flowerscommunity to learn from their experience. Together they bring decades of growing and selling flowers to the advice below.
The growers we heard from: A longtime grower of a cut-flower and nursery farm near Eugene, Oregon; A farmer-florist near Charleston, South Carolina, in the Lowcountry; A grower in southwestern Ontario , Canada; A grower and writer team from southeastern Idaho , who have farmed for close to 30 years; and An urban flower farmer in Eugene, Oregon, growing on a small city lot.
Asked for their favorite reference, these growers named a book published by the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers : Postharvest Handling of Cut Flowers and Greens. Subtitled A Practical Guide for Commercial Growers, Wholesalers, and Retailers. The South Carolina grower reaches for it whenever she starts harvesting a crop that is new to her.
As a farmer-florist, she sees two advantages in selling local flowers: she can offer stems that do not ship well or that wholesalers do not carry at all, and her flowers arrive in much better shape than most stems that travel dry in boxes.
The Ontario grower agrees, and adds that matching the flower to the use matters. A bridal bouquet only needs to look perfect for a few hours, so it can include unusual stems with a short vase life. A market bouquet, on the other hand, should be built from long-lasting flowers that will keep looking good for days in someone's kitchen or hospital room.
What to Grow
There is no single right crop mix. What you grow depends on how much land you have and which plants you enjoy growing.
The Oregon nursery growers have been at it for decades and are devoted plant people. Their view is that florists and wholesalers are always looking for something they have never seen, and a grower's job is to supply it in good quantity and excellent quality.
The farm started in the 1980s growing everlasting flowers for crafters. As tastes changed, the owners shifted toward perennials and woody plants, while keeping the annuals that dry well.
The grower likes plants that give more than one harvest, such as a flower in spring and a seedpod in fall, because that second chance is a built-in backup. The farm still grows statice, ammobium, and strawflower, which are excellent dried but arguably even better fresh.
He is always hunting for new, unusual plants to meet demand. His advice is to stop watching what other growers plant and instead study seed catalogs and trade magazines, browse garden centers and nurseries, and even look at neighborhood gardens. That is how you find what nobody else is offering.
When to Harvest
The Idaho pair are stepping back from running their flower farm to focus on writing and teaching through their education business, which shares its name with their first book, full of lessons learned over nearly three decades of flower farming. A second book followed: All Pollen, No Petal: Behind the Flower Farming Dream).
They have plenty of practical advice. Though officially retired, the grower still gets up before dawn to help the relative who now runs their farm. They harvest every day, and some flowers need checking several times a day. Flowers cut at the right stage and conditioned properly hold up better for both the farmer and the buyer.
That means cutting early, before heat starts pulling moisture out of the stems. In a hot, dry climate this is critical. They often harvest before sunrise by headlamp, while plants are cool and turgid, which gives a better product.
The South Carolina Lowcountry is nothing like the Idaho high desert, but keeping flowers hydrated matters just as much there. With intense summer heat, she harvests as early or as late in the day as she can and moves flowers straight into the cooler. Her stems are never left out of water, her buckets stay clean, and she wipes her snips with alcohol when needed. Above all, she says, build a well-researched, consistent harvest routine."
The Oregon farm has a small crew for harvesting. Early cutting matters, but the grower often has the crew weed for a few hours first.
Plants are usually drenched with dew at sunrise and dry off once the sun and wind come up. So a typical day starts with weeding from early morning until mid-morning, followed by harvesting into the early afternoon. On rainy days, wet stems must be cleaned, spread loosely on a cart and dried with fans before they go into the cooler.
Comparing dewy western Oregon with nearly dew-free southeastern Idaho shows how much practices depend on the site, and why every grower should watch and experiment to find what suits their own conditions.
Bucket Care
Cut flowers at the right stage, quickly, with clean tools, clean water and clean buckets. Third-party photo
It hardly needs saying: clean buckets give you better flowers.
The Ontario grower says post-harvest skills take time to learn, and she considers water quality especially important. Her farm has a deep, clean well, and every stem goes straight into a bucket of cold, clean water.
The Idaho growers find they do not always need to carry water into the field. If you cut at the right time of day, when it is cool and the plant has rehydrated overnight, you can work fast, cutting for about ten minutes, taking that load to the barn and into water, and heading back out for more.
Some farms build expensive bucket-washing stations, but these growers prefer a hose, a stiff brush and effort. They wash buckets at least weekly so flowers always go out in clean buckets with fresh water and freshly cut stems.
| A Simple Bucket-Washing Routine | ||||||
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| For each bucket, mix about 1 gallon of water with a squirt of dish soap and a small amount of household bleach. Never combine bleach with ammonia or other cleaners, and follow the label. | ||||||
| Step 1 | Step 2 | Step 3 — For Heavily Soiled Buckets | ||||
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Holding, Storing, Refrigeration
Adding a cooler in her third season made a big difference for the Eugene urban flower farmer. Third-party photo.
Every grower we spoke with considers refrigeration essential. The Eugene urban grower farms only a small city lot, yet adding cold storage in her third season greatly improved her productivity, efficiency and profits.
Instead of a walk-in cooler, she converted two chest freezers with an external thermostat controller that holds them just under 40°F (4.4°C). Now she can cut on Thursday and hold flowers for a couple of days before her Saturday market. As a one-person operation, she still cuts straight into water, but the converted freezers give her room to store everything she harvests.
After about a decade of growing, the Ontario grower says a cooler is absolutely necessary. Her farm can harvest all week and either use flowers right away or hold them for weekend sales. With flowers safely chilled, she is under less pressure to sell everything at once.
This season the Ontario farm is testing homemade flower-food recipes for the first time. Their flowers have lasted well without it, but they want to see whether it extends vase life. Third-party photo
She is trying several flower-food mixes this year. Because their flowers have always held up well, they had not used flower food before, but they want to see if it helps. She also adds a small amount of household bleach to zinnia and sunflower buckets.
The Oregon nursery grower also counts his walk-in cooler as an essential tool. His crew often comes in from the field in early afternoon with flowers that look limp, even after quick cutting, fast hydration and shade. It takes experience to trust that a night in the cooler will revive them. The farm does not use commercial flower food; for stems that need extra help, they may add a chlorine tablet, and they use a hydrating dip on woody stems.
Selling to Florists
The Idaho grower notes that her flowers look fresh and alive on the truck, with deeper color and better petal texture, and that you can smell them as soon as the doors open. Third-party photo
The Idaho farm was built on direct sales to florists in resort towns more than two hours away. They do not have a refrigerated truck, but flowers move straight from the cooler into a pre-cooled vehicle, and the air conditioning stays on during deliveries.
Careful harvesting and handling mean the flowers arrive in excellent shape. She pays close attention to what her florists buy from large wholesalers, which lets her compare side by side. In her experience, her stems look fresher and more fragrant than flowers shipped overnight, which often arrive dehydrated. She stands behind her flowers for about a week to ten days when handled properly, and she makes a point of knowing her clients and what they use the flowers for, since both their reputations depend on it.
The South Carolina farmer-florist focuses on giving outstanding value. She does part or all of the processing a designer would normally do and tucks in a few extra stems. Third-party photo
Having worked as a designer, she knows the frustration of receiving bunches with unusable stems, or flowers that shatter, and then scrambling for replacements at the last minute. To spare her clients that, she handles much of the processing herself so designers have less to do when her flowers arrive.
She also adds a few bonus stems to each delivery. The small cost is worth it to make sure clients always get full value for what they paid.
Selling at Farmers' Markets
Shoppers like to learn about their flowers. The Ontario grower explains harvest stage, such as petals just opening versus fully open, and why she picks certain varieties, such as pollenless types or strong stems, so customers understand the difference. Third-party photo
Steady quality and regular communication are central to the Ontario farm's marketing. After years in business, customers know what to expect. Their prices may be higher than other vendors', but they keep adding new and better varieties that others do not grow. When another stall sells sunflowers for less, they explain harvest stage and variety choice, and customers often come back later to say thanks and tell them how long the flowers lasted.
Keeping flowers fresh at market is a constant job. Their bouquets always sit in shade under a canopy or tent, never in direct sun.
The Eugene urban grower likes telling shoppers that she grew the flowers herself, just a couple of miles away. Third-party photo
The South Carolina grower has seen farmers put frozen water bottles in buckets to keep flowers cool at market, and others hang curtains, sometimes made from field shade cloth, to block wind and sun.
The Eugene grower shares a covered stall at a weekly Saturday market with her spouse, a potter. They often swap sides through the day so the flowers stay in the shade and the pottery gets the sun.
She enjoys explaining that the flowers are grown nearby, and she has come to know regular customers and talk about how she grows. Once, when a shopper was choosing between her bouquets and grocery-store flowers, her spouse asked whether they would rather support a nearby farmer or flowers from an unknown source. The shopper bought two bouquets. The exchange reminded her that many people do not think about buying local unless someone mentions it, so a friendly, informative conversation can go a long way.
For the Ontario grower, shade is a must. Her father built her this mobile flower cart with a canopy. Third-party photo
The South Carolina grower always talks with market and retail customers about making flowers last, and explains how vase life varies by variety. Shoppers love dahlias, for example, but may not know why they fade sooner than zinnias. She hopes to help customers appreciate a wider range of flowers and treat cut stems as living things that need care.
The Ontario grower will only take on a new market if there is some kind of cover. Her father converted an old livestock trailer into a mobile flower cart with a sturdy canopy, which they use to carry and display flowers at markets and events.
for market customers
- Recut each stem.
- Remove leaves that would sit below the waterline.
- Keep the vase as clean as a drinking glass.
- Keep the bouquet away from direct sun and drafts.
- Top up or change the water every day or two.
The Ontario farm sends market bouquets home with stems wrapped in a small water-filled bag. They remind buyers to change the water every couple of days and to keep the vase out of sunny windows, since flowers prefer cool, clean water.
When the Idaho growers sold at farmers markets, they attached a simple care card to each bouquet: recut the stems, remove submerged leaves, keep the vase spotless and keep the flowers out of direct sun.
The Good, the Bad & the Best-Sellers
We asked every grower about the flowers they love most and the ones they find hardest. Some answers may surprise you.
Crops you love to grow because they hold up well
The South Carolina grower finds 'Amazon Neon Purple' dianthus exceptionally long-lasting, and her design clients and florists favor 'Chantilly' and 'Madame Butterfly' snapdragons, which still hold their color well after a week. Third-party photo.
- The Idaho growers: Sunflowers, tulips, asclepias, bells of Ireland, phlox, sage, raspberry and blackberry foliage, viburnum and delphinium.
- Eugene urban grower: 'Chief' celosia, which stops shoppers and starts conversations. It does not wilt, and unsold stems dry well for velvety holiday wreaths, a second product from one crop. She also likes zinnia 'Queen Red Lime' and its relatives in the series, dependable producers that draw plenty of attention. Scabiosa and strawflowers are other favorites; their novelty at market makes the hot harvest days worthwhile.
- Ontario grower: Lisianthus. A wedding favorite, and customers love its long vase life.
- South Carolina grower: zinnias, especially the 'Benary's Giant' series, which often still look good a week to ten days after a client receives them. She also keeps a growing set of heirloom chrysanthemums, which last remarkably well and come in colors that win over even mum skeptics. Her 'Amazon Neon Purple' dianthus lasts ten days or more, so she uses it often in arrangements. Snapdragons are hard to beat, too; the 'Chantilly' Series and 'Madame Butterfly' Series are popular with her designers and florists and still hold their color after a week.
- Oregon nursery grower: crops that can be gathered in quick handfuls at harvest, like lavender , which you can grab and cut in bunches. He also likes direct-sown crops such as foxtail grass, millet, sunflower, zinnia, safflower."
The Oregon farm makes scabiosa harvest less tedious by lining stems up at the base instead of at the flower heads and sorting them later. A higher price covers the extra handling time. Third-party photo
Crops you love less, because they're fussy (but important to your customers)
- Idaho growers: clematis, which needs netting and takes a long time to cut because the vines tangle.
- Eugene urban grower: one season every aster seemed to take far more work than expected, so she dropped them from her rotation.
- Ontario grower: not exactly a dislike, but zinniascan be frustrating. They do not like a cold cooler, yet warmth makes their water foul quickly, and stem collapse is a common post-harvest problem. They need to be cut and sold promptly. She checks ripeness with the wiggle test: hold the stem a few inches below the flower and give it a gentle shake. If the head flops, it is not ready; if the stem is firm, it is time to cut.
The Idaho grower's advice: focus on quality and make sure buyers know how good your product is. Third-party photo
- South Carolina grower: like many designers, she has a love-hate relationship with poppies and dahlias, both beautiful and temperamental. She will always grow and use them, but she leaves them out of weekly subscriptions and saves them for special events.
- Oregon nursery grower: Scabiosa. It is slow to harvest, but very popular and easy to sell, and customers keep buying even after a price increase. Instead of lining up the heads for a uniform bunch, the crew lines up the stem bases, so short and tall stems go into the bucket together and into the cooler. Later, when filling orders, they sort and grade by length.
The most useful lesson from all five farms is simple: figure out what works for you, then keep testing and improving.
The Idaho grower sums it up: focus on quality and make sure customers see it.
The South Carolina grower finds that florists, who handle flowers of every grade all day, immediately recognize higher quality. Their excitement when she brings in her buckets tells her she is on the right track, and retail customers notice that her flowers often outlast grocery-store bouquets.
Learn More
- 5 Factors That Determine the Vase Life of Cut Flowers • Article
- Postharvest Handling of Cut Flowers and Greens: A Practical Guide for Commercial Growers, Wholesalers, and Retailers. John Dole, NC State University; Robert Stamps, University of FL; Alicain Carlson, NC State University; Iftikhar Ahmad, NC State University & University of Agriculture, Faisalabad; Lane Greer, OK State University; Judy Laushman, Editor. Published by ASCFG • 360-pp Book
- Postharvest Disease of Zinnia: A New Threat to Cut Flower Production, by Fulya Baysal–Gurel, PhD, Tennessee State University. Cut Flower Quarterly, 33 (2), 22–25.
- The Procona System: a reusable, lightweight bucket-and-sleeve system for harvesting, handling, transporting and selling cut flowers and foliage • 4-pp Brochure
